Steam Sales are one of the joys of being a PC gamer. Being able to buy games at huge discounts are always appreciated especially in these times where games are being sold at $60 and with DLC's some game prices are well over $100.
But it seems like getting discounts via Steam Sales are actually bad for the games according to one developer.
Indie game developer Jason Rohrer, the developer of "Passage", "Between" and "Sleep is Death", has written a blog post called "Why Rampant Sales are Bad for Players".
Jason Rohrer argues that a "culture of sales" has led to people waiting for a game's price to drop before buying, which in the long-term results in less money for developers and also a diminished community around a game, as buyers are dispersed over a period of months (or even years) instead of being concentrated around a game's launch.
This is an excerpt of his blog post.
"Your fans love your games and eagerly await your next release. They want to get your game as soon as it comes out, at full price. But they are foolish to do that, because a sale is right around the corner. Even in economic terms, the extra utility of playing the game early, at release, is not big enough to offset the extra cost for most people . It makes more sense to wait, unless they love you and your work so much that they're willing to throw economic reason out the window. It's nice to have fans that love your work that much. And these are the fans that you kick in the teeth when you put your game on sale."
"But forget the fans for a moment. A culture of rampant sales is a culture of waiting. "I'll buy it later, during a sale." Launch weeks become weak, and developers grow to depend on sales for financial survival. Even in my example from above, 25% is a pretty sad launch week. In my case, that represented something like $23K. I made more selling the game through my own website. Pathetic. Of course, sale after sale, later on, pumped my revenue up to way more than what I made on my website.
"This waiting game is likely decimating your player base and critical mass at launch by spreading new players out over time. And your fans, who are silly enough to buy the game at launch and waste money, get to participate in a weaker, smaller player community."
"Finally, there's the possibility that the culture of sales actually reduces developer revenue over the long term. If just half of the players who buy the game during a 50%-off sale would have bought the game at full price if that was their only option, we'd already have a wash. What fraction of sale-waiting players fall into this category? I suspect way more than half. The picture gets even worse for 75%-off sales."
Fans are quick to post however that if a developer would make good games then fans will buy it regardless of the price.
"Make games that I'm so excited for I'll buy straight away at hearing about them, or be a developer that makes games I enjoy so much I'll buy straight away at as full a price as possible." Says user "Ellen J Miller" at Kotaku in response to Jason Rohrer's blog post.
Another user "T.Baxter" in Kotaku said this in response to the blog post "If he made games people enjoyed playing they'd probably end up selling well. I'm no expert, but this method has worked on other games people enjoyed playing. Source: I buy games I enjoy playing."
User "heymanjack" had a rhetorical question "Devs complain that PC gamers pirate games to much and now they complain when PC gamers buy their games at sales? What the F**k do they want from us?"
What do you think? Are Steam Sales bad for gamers? Or is Jason Rohrer wrong?
